Review of Self-Relations in the Psychotherapy Process.

Reviews the book, Self-Relations in the Psychotherapy Process by J. Christopher Muran (see record 2000-16556-000). The self is alive and well and living in psychology, at least if the contributors to J. Christopher Muran's stimulating volume, Self-Relations in the Psychotherapy Process, are to be taken seriously. The self is a central construct in psychoanalytic, humanistic, and cognitive-behavioral theories, but nowadays even some radical behaviorists find the self to be an important concept. Thus, the present is a propitious time for a book that presents the major theoretical approaches to the self in psychotherapy and, fortunately for us, Muran, by gathering the views of leading psychodynamic, humanistic, cognitive-behavioral, and radical behavioral thinkers, has assembled a volume of almost uniformly high quality. Inspired by postmodernism, especially by the growing popularity of dialogic and perspectival epistemologies, Muran has a constructed this book as a set of six dialogues among contributors of varying theoretical persuasions, and although I doubt that dialogic and perspectival epistemologies are necessarily postmodern, I nevertheless find that this volume's dialogic structure makes for interesting reading and adds to its intellectual contributions. Because Muran's contention, with which I agree, is that the self is not an isolated entity but rather part of a relational matrix, it is perhaps necessary for this book to be structured dialogically. Whether postmodern or not, this book is an important one, one that conveys a great deal about what it means to be human as we enter the 21st century. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Forms of Intersubjectivity in Infant Research and Adult Attachment.

Reviews the book, Forms of Intersubjectivity in Infant Research and Adult Attachment by Beatrice Beebe, Steven Knoblauch, Judith Rustin, and Dorienne Sorter (2005). In this book, the authors use their 10 years of collaborative work to produce an in-depth and well-constructed discussion of verbal and nonverbal forms of intersubjectivity as observed in the treatment setting and as evidenced by data generated from more mainstream child development studies. They move beyond the lack of integration between these related though often dramatically disconnected disciplines and build on infant researchers' understanding of "prereflective" caregiver-child interactions to offer a new theory of intersubjectivity that enhances our understanding of the clinical interaction with adult patients. This book is not for those therapists who are interested in learning well-specified, new interventions to use in their psychotherapy practice. It is also not suggested for those clinicians who do not have some background in psychoanalytic theory and practice. It is, however, recommended for those clinicians who work psychodynamically and are interested in developing their awareness of the nonverbal aspects of treatment and the co-construction of the therapeutic encounter. This book would also be useful to those in the field of psychotherapy research as it poses new questions about the nature of the therapeutic process and suggests the importance of examining the role that implicit, nonverbal interactions play in psychotherapy. Beebe, Knoblauch, Rustin, and Sorter's book is well constructed, persuasively argued, and highly recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Classism is overrated: Comment.

Comments on "Psychotherapy, classism, and the poor: Conspicuous by their absence" by Laura Smith (see record 2005-11834-002). This article might have improved Smith's argument that prejudice and oppression (classism) are significant obstacles preventing the poor from receiving psychological services if she had presented evidence to substantiate her claim that "psychology has fallen short in its services" (p. 687) to the poor in the first place. In fact, there is reason to believe that psychotherapists are meeting the mental health needs of the poor in some areas of the country. In Maine, the poor are eligible for Medicaid, which allows for mental health benefits that are more generous in some cases than those provided by private insurance. In addition, the poor in southern Maine may take advantage of programs that pay for mental health services in ways that the middle class cannot. Many psychologists in Maine do provide mental health services to the poor. This is not to say that barriers do not exist or that the mental health needs of the poor are being met. However, I think it is fair to challenge the premise of Smith's (2005) article that the poor either are not being served or are being disproportionately served compared with the nonpoor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Classism is much more complex: Comment.

Comments on "Psychotherapy, classism, and the poor: Conspicuous by their absence" by Laura Smith (see record 2005-11834-002). Smith is to be commended for identifying a critical missing area in applied psychology: the inclusion of people who are poor into training, education, research, and practice. But in advocating for psychology to be inclusive, Smith used conceptualizations of social class and classism that do not address the complexity of social class and classism in psychology. First, the language Smith used to discuss social class was atheoretical. She used the terms social class, class, social status, the poor, and poverty to address social class as a construct, and she did not operationalize her terms. The second limitation in Smith's article was her aggregating and labeling of people who are poor. By categorizing people in this situation as "poor people" rather than as "people who are poor," Smith made "poor people" a dispositional attribute. Finally, Smith's conceptualization of classism does not consider the networks of power (Liu & Pope-Davis, 2003b) that are integral in maintaining and perpetuating inequality and marginalization. Because power is complex, conceptualizations of oppression and marginalization should be as well. Psychologists hoping to decrease inequality in society need to combat disparities with a clear idea of how social class and classism function. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using homework in psychodynamic psychotherapy.

Homework refers to an assignment given by the therapist to the patient that is to be fulfilled between sessions. It is a typical intervention in cognitive-behavioral therapy, but less common in psychodynamic therapy. This article describes an assimilative, integrative model of psychodynamic therapy that incorporates homework and describes its use in a series of clinical cases. Although the indications for and impact of homework vary from case to case, conclusions are drawn as to the most effective approaches to incorporating homework in a psychodynamic model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Handbook of psychotherapy supervision.

Reviews the book, Handbook of psychotherapy supervision by C. Edward Watkins Jr. (see record 1997-08923-000). This book offers a forum for some of the most influential thinkers of our time to discuss what is probably the most critical aspect of learning how to become a therapist: clinical supervision. The book is well organized, comprehensive, and informative. In it, the elusive nature of teaching how to conduct psychotherapy is explored and clarified from a variety of perspectives and across myriad contexts. Overall, the book provides a wealth of information in an organized and readable fashion. Nonetheless, the topics explored include some areas that were not covered adequately. For example, the book would have been further enhanced had the subject of supervisory failures been given more attention, as we know that learning from past errors often provides the most valuable teaching opportunities. Despite a few minor criticisms, the book serves as a wonderful reference for practitioners, students, and teachers of psychotherapy. While extremely useful for the beginning supervisor, the book is also a valuable resource for seasoned supervisors who wish to expand or challenge their ways of thinking about supervision. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A case study in a behavioral analysis of psychotherapy.

A content analysis guided by the points of view of psychoanalytic theory and learning theory was made of the verbalizations from the case history of a 24-year-old male. The content categories utilized were concerned with motivation and defense. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Combined treatment for children with learning disorders.

The causes of learning disorders are numerous and, although some learning difficulties can be remedied by special educative measures only, many such problems, especially when they are more severe represent a disorder of the total personality. In such a case a diagnosis must be established by a team of different specialists. After a careful evaluation a treatment programme is planned and a choice is made among various specific therapies. Very often the treatment of learning disorders must take into account more or less important emotional factors. A combined approach of psychotherapy and remedial teaching is sometimes essential to attain some success in helping a child. Such a combination of treatments requires close cooperation between psychotherapist and special teacher. Their respective roles have to be frequently clarified and both gain in understanding of the child needs through mutual communication. Following the evolution of a child from two points of view demonstrates more and more clearly how the intellectual processes necessary for learning are subject to inhibiting patterns that are observed in neurotic defense mechanisms against emotional conflicts. In some instances this practical knowledge would be necessary to understand why a child does not profit from remedial measures and to determine how new techniques are to be used to help him. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Characteristics of interactional behavior in a psychotherapy analogue.

Ss discussed topics with an interviewer (I) whose comments were controlled by a motor response made by S. In Exp. I, there was less increase in silence over trials, more negative attitude toward the I, and longer delay after I responses when these were interpretations rather than reflections. With a choice between interpretation and reflection, several personality differences were found between Ss preferring one rather than the other of the two classes of I response. Ss in Exp. 1 requested an I response less frequently when he disagreed with them, but only under conditions in which Ss were told the I would try to influence them. Under influence instructions there was a positive correlation between frequency of I responses and negative attitude toward him. In Exp. 3, frequency of I response was maintained over trials only for Ss high on the Social Desirability Scale. The attitude of high SD Ss was more negative when emotional, rather than neutral, topics were discussed. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Sin, the lesser of two evils": Comment.

Comments on the article "Sin, the lesser of two evils" by O.H. Mower (1960) (see record 1961-03555-001). The present author was puzzled by Mower's argument of bringing "sin" into psychotherapy and counters Mower on two of his key points. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)